The present invention relates to a method for forming a cigarette rod containing an additive material.
The present invention is advantageously applied in the sector of cigarette making machines, both with a single and a double line, and in particular for making cigarette lengths obtained by wrapping a web of paper around a continuous tobacco rod which is formed along a vacuum conveyor, in order to create a continuous cigarette rod which is subsequently cut into cigarette lengths.
The practice of including particles of an additive material in the tobacco, which changes the flavor of the smoke when the cigarette burns, is known in the production of cigarettes.
For this reason, cigarette making machines often incorporate the additive material in the cigarette rod, for example in the form of microcapsules, distributed at random and with average preset concentrations, but without effective control of their local distribution in the cigarette rod.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a method and device which allow the distribution of the particles of the additive material and their quantity or number to be controlled.
Another aim of the present invention is to provide a method and device which allow the obtainment of a preset distribution of said particles along the cigarette rod, or alternatively allow the distribution of such particles of the additive material at preset zones of the cigarette rod.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for the production of a cigarette rod containing particles of an additive material, in a cigarette making machine, including stages of feeding particles of tobacco to a vacuum conveyor, which moves at a preset speed, in order to form a continuous tobacco rod, incorporating the particles of the additive material in the tobacco rod as it is formed, feeding the tobacco rod to a station which forms a continuous cigarette rod, the particles of the additive material being positioned substantially along the axis of the cigarette rod, and cutting the cigarette rod into lengths using a rotary cutting device designed to cyclically cut the rod at transversal cutting lines, wherein the stage of incorporating the particles of the additive material in the tobacco rod comprises stages of feeding the particles of the additive material to a distributor having a rotary conveyor with distribution seats on one of its outer surface, ejecting the particles of the additive material towards the tobacco rod from the rotary conveyor through at least one ejection channel.
The present invention also relates to a device for the production of a cigarette rod containing particles of an additive material.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a device for the production of a cigarette rod containing particles of an additive material, having a vacuum conveyor designed to form a tobacco rod to be fed to a station which forms a continuous cigarette rod, a device for incorporating the particles of the additive material in the tobacco rod, a rotary cutting device for cutting the cigarette rod at transversal cutting lines, so as to form lengths, the device comprising a rotary conveyor with distribution seats on one of its outer walls, ejector means, located in a fixed position relative to the conveyor, designed to eject a given quantity of particles of the additive material when the conveyor carrying the particles of the additive material arrives at the position of the ejector means, feed means for transferring the particles of the additive material from the ejector means to a zone close to the vacuum conveyor designed to form a tobacco rod.